The Balloon
by WingedShadowhunter
Summary: All Chris's life he was never treated like more than a burden to his family, so when he graduates high school he packs his bag and leaves his old life behind. Now he's living in an awesome apartment, dating a beautiful girl, and well on his way to earning a degree. Just one problem. There's a new source in town and his family cant defeat him without Chris's help. I own nothing.
1. Burdon

Author's note: Okay, funny story. This whole story started out as a dare. My nephew bet me five dollars that i couldn't write a two page Microsoft word document about a balloon that was left over from my other nephews birthday party. Well, I won five dollars and got inspired for another story (still not so sure weather or not that's a good thing), so please enjoy and tell me weather or not you want me to continue posting the story, I already have the next three chapters done.

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Chris stood there staring at the Balloon, it was Wyatt's ninth birthday, and the house was decorated in blue, red, and yellow streamers, banners, confetti, and a huge balloon on a blue string, surrounded by blue green, red, and orange smaller ordinary helium balloons was the center piece.

Chris reached up and ran his hand over the string, the seven year old had never gotten special balloons, and his brother got them every year, along with pretty decorations, and a huge cake in the shape of whatever he wanted. Every year the whole family got together on February second to celebrate the birth of the twice blessed.

However on October thirty-first, the day that in 2003 that Christopher Perry Halliwell was born, he got a small square store bought cake with 'Happy Birthday' written on it with icing, and on that day it was only Piper, Wyatt, and himself that gathered around their oak dining table and sang happy birthday, and every year he made the same wish, that his daddy would come one year to celebrate his birth the way he did Wyatt's.

At first, when he was younger, he didn't realize how differently he was treated, he didn't realize that Wyatt got the biggest room and the best toys and the most expensive clothes and shoes. He was in the most pictures and invited to the most parties.

Everyone made it perfectly clear that Wyatt was the favorite and Chris was nothing more than an inconvenience. Even Chris's seven year old brain could process that.

He longed for the day when he could get away, run from everything. The day when he would be a big boy and could pack a bag full of his clothes and all the money on his piggy bank, and leave, to stop being a burden on his family, the people he loved. Because it was clear that they didn't love him back.

He sighed and looked down at his shoes, he looked up when he heard the sound of orbing, the pretty blue and white sparkling lights, that meant someone with whitelighter blood had entered the manor.

The lights materialized into the smiling form of his 'father' Leo, the man who shared fifty percent of his genetic code, but had never done anything to earn the title of 'father' or 'dad'. The smile slipped off the face of the older man's face as his eyes landed on the small brunet form of his seven year old son, looking up at him with wide curious and sad deep electric green eyes that seemed to show all the depths of his soul.

"Where's your brother?" Leo asked with a frown as he set down the huge wrapped package on the flowered three setter couch and scowled at the boy.

Chris shrugged and went back to looking at the balloon; it was funny, he thought, how such a small thing could make him realize just how different he was treated than his brother. Just a nine shaped balloon yet it made all the difference.

"Boy, look at me when I speak to you." Leo demanded him, "Answer me."

"No sir, I don't know where Wyatt is, I'm sorry." Chris told him sadly as he looked at his father.

"You're useless; you know that, your mom should've gotten rid of you a long time ago." Leo said as he walked out of the room, but he stopped to yell over his shoulder, "Stay away from Wyatt's present, and get away from that balloon, Wyatt will be sad if you mess it up, like always."

"Okay." Chris mumbled sadly as he backed up out of the room and into the kitchen where his mom was making Wyatt's huge train shaped cake. When he pushed open the off-white swinging door, he saw his mother icing a large cake, with icing on her face. "Hey mommy, can I help you?" Chris asked her sadly, Piper didn't seem to notice, she simply waved the hand that was not holding the icing bag in the universal 'go away' hand gesture.

"But-" Chris started, however he was cut off as she said in an extremely annoyed tone,

"Go away Chris, I'm busy, can't you go in the living room and watch TV or something?" without looking up and went back to icing the cake.

"But daddy-" He started, but once again, she cut him off.

"I'm busy, go to your room. Now." Chris sighed and walked out of the kitchen, however, on his way up the stairs, he caught sight of the balloon.

Soon. He promised himself. I'll leave soon, but for now, he went up to the attic to summon his aunt Prue.


	2. Finally

Note: First, thank you for the reviews I really appreciate them! Next, this does take place in the changed future, and you _will_ find out why Piper and Leo are so harsh, there is a reason although I don't know for sure when it will be revealed, there will be small hints throughout the story if you look closely enough. On another note entirely, I have already written quite a few fics about Chris, and Chris/Bianca just let me know if you want me to post them. But I don't know how long it would take me because they are almost all written in my 'Ideas that wont get out of my head' notebook (Also known as the reason I'm failing Spanish) and I would have to do some serious editing, not to mention its finals week. :(. Oh, and this takes place nine years after the prologue. So if you just read all of that thank you and please let me know what you think, thanks!

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9 years later…

Chris sighed as he opened the door to his new apartment. He looked around, two bedrooms, a large kitchen, one and a half bathrooms. It was a pretty nice place for a first apartment, but then again when you'd been saving your all your money and working all kinds of odd and part time jobs and didn't need a car, the money accumulated pretty quickly.

He put down the box he was carrying on the coffee table, and looked around the room with a smile on his face, he was in Massachusetts, and once the summer was over he'd be starting collage on a full ride to Harvard Medical School.

He hadn't even bothered to say goodbye to his family, he'd simply left after his graduation ceremony, which no one had shown up to. Wyatt was apparently at some party, Paige and Phoebe were busy with their kids and Piper and Leo just couldn't be bothered. So if they couldn't be bothered, he decided, neither could he.

Therefore after the ceremony, he had orbed directly into his bedroom, and started the tedious process of orbing all of his belongings into his new home, however only after putting up wards and blocks to make sure that he was undetectable by sensing and Scrying.

His family may not care about him, but Chris wasn't stupid, he knew that if he didn't they would find him. And that was not something he could risk. He was going to build a new life, find a new family, make new friends, and make a name for himself. In both the magical and normal worlds. He was going to be more than just Wyatt's little brother or Piper and Leos _other_ son. He was going to be Christopher Halliwell, and damn it, he was going to have people who _really_ love him.

He opened the box that he had just sat down and pulled out an exact replica of the book of shadows. The brunette witch walked down the hallway and opened the door to one of the two bedrooms; inside were potion ingredients placed neatly inside of cabinets, a cauldron resting on a table, and a podium resting right in the middle of the room. It was charmed so that only he could open or move it. He walked over to the podium and placed the book on it with a small smile. He was home.

With a pleased look on his face, he walked out of the magic room and into the family room where he started to open and unpack the boxes. He didn't have much, all he brought with him was his clothes, and the replica book, and he had furnished the apartment slowly over the past year, and was trying to make it feel more like a home. Not that he knew what a home felt like, granted that he had never truly had one.

He sighed as he looked down into the box he was currently unpacking, laying on the top of the box, was a framed picture, one of the only pictures of the whole family together, and the only one that contained him. In the very back row of people were Coop, Leo, and Henry, standing in front of them were their wives, Phoebe, Piper, then Paige. Standing in front of Phoebe were Patty, Penny, and Patience. In front of Piper were Wyatt, Chris, and their littler brother, Victor, and then in front of Paige stood Kat, Tamara, and Henry Jr. It was one big happy family. Pictures could be deceiving.

Chris carefully set the picture down on second to top shelf on one of the floor to ceiling bookcases that were on earthier side of the flat screen TV mounted to the wall. _Yeah_, he thought, _life was about to get a lot better._


	3. Realizations

Note: I decided to just post this chapter today also because its really short and it will give me more incentive to finish editing the next chapter. Okay, I probably should have explained this earlier but I thought that Piper having three sons would be better for this particular story. I personally bounce back and forth between having Melinda in my stories, it really depends on the mood that I'm in at the time that I come up with the idea and when I start writing it. Sometimes I'll start a story with Melinda or Victor as a third child and then go back and remove them completely or the opposite and go add them in. In the future I will try and remember to specify weather or not Piper has a third child and if so whether it is Victor or Melinda. I hope that made at lest a little sense :-). As for Chris's grandfather, I will most likely introduce him latter on along with a few other characters (Hint: Prue). Please let me know what you think!

Two Days Later at the Halliwell Manor…

Piper Halliwell sat down at the dining table next to her husband, and smiled at her perfect family, her sisters and brother-in-laws, her nieces and nephews, her husband and her three kids-. She stopped her thoughts dead in their tracks and an icy feeling of dread overcame her. Looking around the table and realized that there were only two of her children sitting at the table.

"Hey, when was the last time any of you saw Chris?" Piper asked her family as the feeling of dread multiplied tenfold once she realized that she couldn't recall the last time that she had seen her middle child. It only doubled again as her fears were recognized and her family all looked around with confused looks on their faces.

Leo hummed with furrowed eyebrows and a thoughtful look on his face as though he couldn't recall, Paige smiled.

"Last week, when he told me he made valedictorian." She declared brightly, "By the way, how did his speech go? I couldn't make it to the graduation ceremony." Piper paled, as did Wyatt, and Victor.

"I don't know, I forgot about it." Piper said quietly.

"You didn't go?" Wyatt asked, "Did anyone go?" Everyone shook their heads and Wyatt pushed up off his chair, the back of his knees causing it to fly across the floor, the rest of the family followed his example and ran up the stairs, "Chris!" Wyatt called as he threw the door to his little brother's room open.

The family was shocked to see that all of Chris's possessions were gone, dresser drawers open and empty, the closet door open and vacant of anything related to the brunette witchlighter, and it was obvious that he had planned his exit. Not a thing was left behind. Obviously he didn't want them Scrying for him.

"Chris!" Victor called, Chris always came for his little brother, except this time, he couldn't even feel Chris in the connection that the three brothers shared, the power of three had been passed down to them three years ago when Wyatt had turned 18, although Victor himself had been only nine years old, the elders had insisted that it was important.

It seemed that Wyatt had come to the same conclusion as he ran up the stairs and into the attic, once they opened the door, it was clear that a lot of potion ingredients and wiccan supplies were missing, however no one seemed to care as they ran over to the book.

They arrived to see that the triquetra on the cover was split, one of the ovals separated from the rest of the ancient symbol, and it lacked the light that it usually had. It was in that moment that the realization of what they had done settled on them, Chris was gone. And he had no intention of coming home.


	4. Meeting

Note: So I had some extra time after my English final to edit this chapter and that's really the only reason I should post anything today, I want to keep the daily chapter thing going for as long as possible. Now okay, I know that a lot of people don't like Wyatt and Chris having a third sibling, and I get that, but for this story I felt that it was needed because in order to have a next generation of the power of three, you have to have three siblings. I made them have a little brother because I like the idea of Piper having all boys. But I promise that the story won't be hijacked by a Garry sue younger sibling. In fact, none of my OC's will play a big of a role in the story; they're really just there because I felt like naming them. Now onto other things, first, I forgot to mention that Henry Junior is adopted. And second, in case you didn't know, I posted two chapters on another charmed story (It will have a lot of Chris/Bianca, but there will also be OC's) and I would love it if you went and checked it out. Now I will shut up and let you read the story.

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Six months later…

Chris jogged down the stairs of his apartment complex, laundry basket balanced on his hip with one hand, the other griping the stair rail. He watched his feet as he descended the stairs on his way to the laundry room, he was so focused on looking at the stairs to avoid falling, he almost missed the college student from apartment 5b who seemed to always be in a rush, as he came barreling down the stairs.

"Hey watch it Mark!" Chris yelled somewhat angrily as he barely managed to sidestep the other teenager. As suspected he didn't get a response, however, a few seconds later he heard a small surprised shriek soon followed by a loud crashing sound.

Quickly jogging down the rest of the stairs to the landing of level two he blinked a few times at the sight in front of him. Sitting on the floor scowling in the direction Mark had run off into was a beautiful tanned woman with long legs and waist length brown hair that brushed the floor from the position that she had landed in. She was wearing a dark green tank top and short dark wash denim shorts.

Chris blinked a few more times before shaking his head, only partially clearing his brain of the X-rated thoughts that were multiplying by the second, and dropped his laundry basket on the landing before he rushed down the few stairs separating him and the girl. He couldn't help but notice that she looked really familiar, and the closer he got the stronger the feeling that he knew her from somewhere got.

Once he reached the other landing, he held out his hand to the girl, she looked up startled not having noticed him coming. He shot her a charming smile and looked around at the mess that had been made by the boxes she had been carrying when she fell, "Sorry about Mark, he's always late for something. Need some help?"

She took his hand cautiously, as though she was afraid he was about to attack her, and he easily pulled her to her feet. "Thanks, but no thanks, I've got it." She responded, bending over to right one of the two boxes that she had been carrying.

Chris wasn't _trying _to snoop. Really, he wasn't. However, he couldn't help but notice the athame's, candles, and Wiccan herbs. And now that he looked closely, he didn't miss the red phoenix shaped birthmark on the inside of her forearm.

"Nice birthmark." He deadpanned tensing for an attack. "Assassinate anyone recently?" She froze for half a second before her face went stoic.

Everything happened so fast, too fast for even him to follow. One second he was mentally preparing for an attack, the next he was on his back with his feet knocked out from under him, a dagger pushed up against his thought and a petite body straddling his waist in a context that was completely different then the way he had been fantasizing about the exact same position not ten minutes prior.

Chris could have laughed. Forget the saying 'The hot ones are always taken.' In his life it was 'The hot ones are always evil.' But he didn't laugh because common sense told him that that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Instead he arranged his tone in a threatening scowl.

"Who are you?" The girl asked with an unwavering voice, "Did they send you?"

"Who are _they_?" Chris asked her stressing the word, now slightly confused. Although evil beings did have a habit of speaking nonsense, he could tell that she was really worried although he had no idea _how_ he knew that.

Apparently his question only angered her further as her features lost their stoic mask and arranged in a glare. "Don't play dumb, you know who they are." She ground out looking down at him.

"No. I don't." Chris responded in a voice that was just as threatening as his stare. "Now, I'm going to ask you once. Move the athame."

The girl tilted her head to the side. "If you don't tell me who you are right now, I will move the athame through your throat."

"Fine." Chris said, he wasn't quite sure what made him want to help her, to protect her even, but he just chalked it up to his elder side. And he knew that he couldn't hurt her. "My name is Chris." He paused, "Chris Halliwell."

Her eyes widened slightly as soon as his last name left his lips. He could have laughed. But he didn't, because there was still an athame pushed up against his throat. "Would you please more that?" He asked eyeing the sharp instrument with a cocked eyebrow.

She slowly removed the athame and gracefully got off of him dropping the scowl and muttering a small, "Sorry." As she backed up a safe distance from him as he stood up, all 6 foot one of him and looked down at her, "You're not going to vanquish me are you?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrow.

"I don't know." Chris said rubbing just below his Adams apple where the blade had been pressed and left a very small line that didn't quite draw blood but was noticeable nonetheless. "Are you going to try to kill me again?"

"Not unless you give me a reason." The girl said as she turned and began rapidly throwing her possessions into the box that was still not packed back up.

"I gave you a name; don't you think that you owe me one?" He asked as he bent over and placed a stray candle into the box. "After all, you did just attack me for trying to be a gentleman."

"Bianca. Bianca Marshall." She said as she closed the box, stacked it on top of the other one and then picked it up. Chris pulled the boxes from her arms easily.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Earning more brownie points." Chris responded with a smirk. "So, while I am helping carry your boxes, maybe you could tell me who _they_ are."

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Note: Okay, so there you go, we meet Bianca, I know that she's a littler OOC but it's kind of hard to write her and the only Bianca we really ever saw on the show was raised evil and I have a different backstory for this version of her, and in this fic, I'm making her the same age as Chris. I know that that's changing a lot but I want them to be the same age (You'll find out why later). Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think, and if you have the time check out my other story, I would appreciate it. :-)


	5. Bianca's Story

Note: Sorry that it took me so long to get this up, finals are a bitch; on the bright side I aced two of them today :-). Anyways, I take my last two finals tomorrow and then I'm on summer break. So I should be able to post longer chapters. Well, I do have to baby sit three demonic children all summer to earn money for a new laptop… but they'll just eat and play video games like usual. Hopefully. Anyway, enjoy! And please review.

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"My full name is Bianca Nichole Marshall." Bianca started looking down into the coffee mug that was nestled between her fingers, warming her hands. She was seated at Chris's dining room table across from the charming man himself. "I was born into the Phoenix, a coven of assassin witches, but I swear I'm not evil." She looked up at Chris with pleading eyes, begging him to understand.

"I believe you." He couldn't tell you why, but he did, irrevocably. "You family doesn't determine who you are."

She studied him for a moment. "You speak like you have experience." She said after a moment.

"You tell your story first, and then I'll share mine. Besides, you are the one with _them_ after you." Chris responded with a feigned smile. "Maybe I can help. It's kind of my job."

"I'm half demon; I think helping me out is the opposite of your job." Bianca mumbled under her breath once again focusing her gaze on the coffee mug.

"Well, I tend to go against the mainstream." Chris chuckled gesturing to his all black clothes and shaggy hair. "Besides, you said you're not evil right?" He asked, when she nodded he managed to fake another smile and said, "Well then that makes you an innocent. Therefore my conscience requires me to help you. If I can that is." He said, happy with his logic.

Bianca sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day. It didn't take a genius to realize that there was no way in hell Chris was going to let this go without a fight. And if she was going to be completely honest with herself, she didn't want to fight him. Just for once she wanted someone to take care of her. So she told him.

"My mother. She didn't want to be an assassin. She always though that she was trapped, that there was no way out." She shifted on the chair. "It's something the leaders drill into all of us from the moment we're born. No way out, just accept what you have and be happy with it."

"But my mother wasn't." Bianca paused for a moment and swallowed. "She came up with a plan to escape when I was five years old; she never told me what made her decide to do it though. We got out and she raised me like a good witch, we fought evil rather than aid in it, but we had to keep our heads down because the Phoenix coven doesn't take betrayal lightly."

"But we slipped up about two years ago and they found us. My mother was killed and I barely escaped. Ever since they've been even more desperate to find me. Apparently they really liked my powers." She finished, finally looking up at Chris to see him looking at her with a thoughtful look on his face. "What?" She asked after a moment.

"What are your powers?" He questioned her.

Bianca hummed, "There's power stripping, apportation, energy balls, shimmering, and agility. Well, there's also reconstruction if that counts, but it's passive."

Chris nodded a thoughtful look still on his face. "Okay, so now that I've spilled, you have to. So tell me what a Halliwell is doing all alone in Massachusetts?" Bianca asked him with a small grin on her face. It was interesting. Their whole lives neither of them had ever truly trusted anyone, and now, an hour after meeting in a stairwell and attacking one another it was like they had known each other for years. It was unexplainable, unnerving, and amazing all at once.

Chris looked into her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking down at his own mug of coffee. "You're not going to let me help you until I tell you everything are you?" He asked softly, not even bothering to try and keep up his fake smile anymore.

"Nope." She said popping the p.

"Didn't think so." Chris said and now it was his turn to sigh. He dealt unnaturally protective of the young woman in front of him, and if he had to spill his guts to protect her he didn't see any other option. He took a deep breath and began his story.

"Well…"

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Note: Well here you go, I worked really hard to get this up tonight, so I would love it if you let me know what you think. In the next chapter we're going to see just how badly Chris's childhood messed him up. I know some people really want to see the part of the story where Chris essentially tells his family to go screw themselves, but I really went to get his life with Bianca established before I start up with that storyline. :-)


	6. Chris's Story

Note: So, on Friday I took my last two Finals (for this year anyway…) and I am officially on summer break, that means I have a lot more time to write and the chapters will hopefully be longer. I am so sorry for taking so long to post this chapter but you know, end of the year stuff… and by that I mean that I came home after school and slept until 10 on Saturday then went to the mall and then I had to go to a graduation party. Not only that but I for the life of me could not figure out how to write Chris's story in a way that would work for his character. So anyway, responding to a few comments now…

Nosside- I thought so to! That's why I want to strengthen their relationship before I add in the rest of the Halliwell's, and no, you don't need to stop asking me questions, they keep me on my toes!

Highlander348- No, sorry, but I'm in high school and have no experience in that area and therefore I cannot really write about it. I will make it clear when they do have sex, I just won't add in details.

MONEBUDDHA- Me two, that's why that tends to be what most of my charmed fics revolve around!

Nicsava- I read your comment and I was like… Because I completely forgot about the laundry basket! And I prof read the chapters like five times and never once did I notice that he just abandoned his dirty laundry in the stairwell. So let's just say that he orbed it back to his apartment.

CharmedOpal- No, Wyatt will not be turning evil in this story. I really don't like evil Wyatt and I don't think that I could write him if I tried. :-)

I would respond to more but I really need to get this posted, so thank you for all the positive reviews! :-)

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"Well… The short version…"Chris sighed, "The short version is that my family never cared about me."

"You expect me to believe that?" Bianca asked disbelievingly, "Aren't Halliwell's like all about family?"

"Yeah… I guess." Chris said quietly as he looked down at the mug in his hand. "I was just never a part of that family to them I guess." He mumbled as he straightened himself up and walked over to the refrigerator and opened the cabinet above it. Bianca couldn't see what was inside but she got a pretty good idea when he pulled a bottle of whisky out and set it on the counter.

He got a glass out of another cabinet, and then turned to look at her, "Want some?" She looked at him in disbelief.

"It's 11 o'clock in the morning." She said shocked, he surely hadn't struck her as an alcoholic. He sighed and looked at the glass in his hand for a moment before letting out a huge exasperated breath and putting it back into the cabinet doing the same to the whiskey and filling up their coffee mugs instead.

"How did you get that anyway, how old are you?" She asked him after he sat down again with his head in his hands.

"18." He responded in monotone voice.

"Oh, me to." She said slightly surprised, he did look older than that. "So how _did_ you get that?" She asked with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He looked at her stupidly for a moment before cocking an eyebrow in response and silently glamouring himself into a version of himself that looked about ten years older. "Oh." She mumbled inwardly scolding herself for not think of that. After all he was one of the most powerful witches in the world, right?

"Don't beat yourself up about it." He said reading her face with a small smile tilting his lips as he changed back into himself.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "So are you going to tell me about you or not?"

"There's not much to tell." He said looking back down at the table with a stoic look on his face. "My whole family was emotionally abusive throughout my whole child hood until I was fifteen and my father started using me as his own personal punching bag, my older brother stole my girlfriend, I started cutting, my family knew and they didn't care."

He looked up at her, "I saved up my money, got the best grades that I could and then I got the hell out of doge on a full ride to Harvard the second I graduated from high school. I could have gone to Stanford but I wanted to get out of California." He shrugged his muscular shoulders and leaned back in his chair running his fingers over the rim of his glass.

Bianca was shocked. The Halliwell's were supposed to be the strongest force of good in the world and here they were abusing their child? It just didn't seem right. "Isn't your dad like an angel or something?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, he was at one point." Chris chuckled bitterly, "Not so much anymore." Chris responded thinking about the time when he was sixteen that his father had pushed him down a flight of stairs and cracked two of his ribs, then acted as though it had never happened. He remembered the time that his mother had walked in on him taking a razor to his wrist, made a face of momentary panic before going completely stoic then she had shrugged her shoulders leaving the room as though in a trance, and the time when he had walked in on his brother making out with his girlfriend at the time, Sophie. Neither of them had even apologized. Yeah, what a force of good his family was.

Bianca, seeing that he was lost in his thoughts quickly came up with a new question to ask him, "So, how did you afford this awesome apartment?" She asked looking around at the stainless steel appliances, flat screen TV and very expensive looking furniture.

Chis smiled a smile that was faker than the elders concern for anything but themselves, "Well, I don't really need a car and I've been saving up since I was seven. Plus a little magic never hurt anyone."

"Personal gain." She suggested with raised eyebrows and a smirk.

"The elders control personal gain consequences, and they don't know where I am thanks to some very strong clocking spells and protection wards." He looked at the picture on the wall briefly before sighing. "Well, I have two bedrooms here, one of them is being used as a Wiccan room, but I can move the stuff. It'd probably be best if you stayed here until we solve your stalker problem. Or at least until I can put up protection wards on your apartment."

Bianca looked at him suspiciously for a moment. "No ulterior motives?" She asked cautiously.

"My hand to god." Chris responded lifting his right hand sarcastically.

"You don't strike me as the religious type." She said rolling her eyes.

Chris smirked devilishly, "I'm not."

* * *

Note: Well, there you go, Chris told Bianca some of his story and you got a few hints to the bigger picture which I'm sure a lot of you will guess now. I would have liked to have gone more into Chris story, but I feel like after his childhood he would have a lot of trust issues, and even though he already trust Bianca a lot, I think it would take him a lot longer to open up about his whole childhood. But I will be slipping in some things here and there for a while.

Hopefully in the next few chapters the two of them will be getting to know each other a lot better, as people not story's. Please let me know what you think, and there should be a poll up on my profile to determine the direction that the story goes in by the time that this goes up, so please go check that out. :-)


	7. The first morning

Note: Okay, I know that I promised longer chapters, but this was a really good place to stop. And I got distracted by pictures of Dew Fuller when I was looking for a cover picture for another story I'm considering posting. I also got distracted while looking at pictures of something else, but that's a surprise/ slight plot twist for a lot latter in the story. I will try to post another chapter tonight if I can. Also I will definitely include parts of Chris's childhood throughout the story as often as I can, I already have a few ideas. On another note, I already know where I'm going to go with Chris and Bianca's relationship throughout the rest of the story. Oh, and I fixed the Poll, there were technical difficulties. And by that I mean operator error. Please, please let me know what you think! :-)

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It was a little after eight in the morning when Bianca woke up, she stretched her arms above her head and yawned pooping her spine she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She really had to hand it to Chris, he was good at conjuring, and after all she had slept like a baby in the bed that he had put into the Wiccan made guest room. That is after he had made a show of removing the book of shadows saying that he "really did trust her, but he'd been burned before."

Bianca froze as she smelled a delectable sent coming from the kitchen. A small smile tilted her lips as she recognized the smell. Bacon, pancakes, and eggs. Her favorite breakfast food. She threw the blankets off and stood up, almost forgetting that she was sleeping in a tank top and sleep shorts. She looked down and realized that it would probably be in her best interest to put on her robe before walking into a room with a relative stranger that made her want to do very sinful things.

All of her boxes had been brought, and by that she meant orbed up from her car and were now stacked into a corner of the bedroom she was currently occupying. She wished that she would have been able to shimmer everywhere like Chris could orb, but shimmering was the fastest way to be tracked down and killed. That was the mistake her mother had made that lead to her death.

Bianca sighed and closed her eyes, lost in her thoughts until her stomach growled. She drew in a deep breath and grabbed her robe from the top of a box and pulled it on. She opened the door and walked quietly down the hallway until she reached the kitchen where she paused.

Chris was sitting at the island eating a huge plate full of food, and there was another plate full of food sitting next to him. "Are you going to eat all of that?" She asked him nodding to the second plate.

"That one's for you," He said gesturing to the plate beside him. "Hope you like eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Technically I stole the recipes from my mother, so it's pretty good."

Bianca looked at him for a moment, noticing that he was already dressed and his hair was damp as though he had just taken a shower not too long ago, and then simply run his fingers through it a few times. He was wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt, a lot like the one that he had been wearing the day before, but this one was sleek and showed some the muscle underneath.

Chris cleared his throat with a smug smirk that made her blush and look at her feet. She could feel his gaze traveling over her body as she moved to sit beside him and picked up her fork. Out of the corner of her eye he could see Chris looking at her. Although his face appeared indifferent, she could see the small spark of insecurity in his eyes as she brought a forkful of eggs to her mouth.

She closed her eyes and held back a moan. They were by far the best eggs she had ever tasted. When she opened her eyes she looked at Chris to see that he was smiling at her with a smug look on his face. "These are the best eggs I have ever eaten in my life." She said around another forkful.

Chris turned back to his plate and picked up a piece of bacon. "Now you're just sucking up."

"Well, you could vanquish me if I piss you off…" She trailed off with a small smile. Chris laughed but didn't respond.

A few minutes later when they had finished eating, though surprisingly, Chris had finished his food first even though he had well over twice the amount of food on his plate. It really made her question how on earth he didn't weigh five hundred pounds.

"You should go take a shower and get ready; there are towels in the bathroom closet." Chris said without looking at her while washing the dishes off in the sink.

"Is that your subtle way of telling me I stink?" Bianca asked him with a mock offended look on her face.

"No." he laughed. "Trust me, you don't stink."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bianca asked from her perch on the barstool at the island with a laugh.

"Nothing, just go get ready," Chris said shaking his head with a smile, "We have stuff to do today."

"Like what?" Bianca challenged.

"Well unless you want to live with me forever," They both held back a smile at the idea, "I have to go put up wards on your apartment. But I'd probably be better if you stayed here until we solve your little assassin stalker problem…" He trailed off.

"Oh," Bianca smirked, "Are you sure you don't just like having me around?" She inquired after a moment; he gave her the most genuine smile that she had seen on his face since they had met in the hallway.

"Who said I didn't?"


	8. Powers

Note: Okay, I would like to say that I am really sorry for how long it took me to get this chapter up, but turns out that babysitting three demonic children is more difficult and time consuming than high school. And that is saying something. I'm not going to give any more excuses, because excuses are like butt holes, everyone's got one and they all stink. So, I hope you like the chapter, and let me know what you think :-).

* * *

Chapter 7

It was a little over an hour later when Bianca was finally ready. She came sauntering into the family room in a navy blue tank top, white skinny jeans, and a pair of black combat boots. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek pony tail, with a lock of hair out on both sides to frame her face. Chris looked her over and a small smile tilted his lips. "So, do you really think it's a good idea to wear white to a vanquish?"

"What are we vanquishing?" She asked with furrowed brows as she came to sit next to him on the couch where he had placed the book of shadows on his lap and was flipping through the pages. She sat on a bent knee facing him and laid her arm on the back of the couch looking over his shoulder at the book.

"I don't know, it really depends on whether or not you feel comfortable turning your family back into the ash they were born from." He said nonchalantly without looking up from the elegant writing and detailed illustrations.

Bianca's jaw dropped. She really didn't have a problem with the idea of vanquishing the Phoenix. She would have loved to wipe out the entire clan after what they did to her mother. In her eyes they were not her family in any way, shape, or form. The only family she had ever really had was Lynn and they had taken that away from her. However going up against one phoenix assassin was risky. Going after the whole coven, that was a suicide mission… The guy must have had a death wish.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" Bianca asked him in wide eyed shock.

Chris looked at her with his brow furrowed for a moment before turning back to the book, "No, why do you ask?"

"Maybe because going after a group of demonic assassins is a death sentence?" She said shortly. To be completely honest, the idea of him getting hurt scared her more than the idea of herself being injured. Bianca didn't quite know what to make of that. She was independent. She had only ever trusted one person, and she had been raised by her. She had never had a boyfriend or even a friend really. Their 'I'm running for my life' lifestyle pretty much took away any chance of that.

So the fact the she not only trusted this man, but also was terrified at the thought of him being hurt, well, it was definitely something new. She blinked and mentally cursed herself as she realized that she had been staring at him throughout her little mental voyage. _Great,_ she thought, _like his ego needs any more inflating. _Fortunately, it seemed as though he hadn't noticed her little solo staring contest as he looked up at her from the book with a slightly offended look on his face.

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" He asked her.

"So you're a Halliwell, you're not the twice blessed or anything right? Doesn't that make you like a normal witch?" She asked, then bit her lip as it dawned on her just haw mean that actually sounded. The look on his face wet from one of extreme offence, to hurt, to indifference in less than ten seconds flat.

"I hate to break it to you, but 'twice-blessed' means the son of a charmed one and a Whitelighter. That is, ever since the elders altered the prophecy anyway. Even though I'm technically half elder, it still applies to me." He looked back down at the book and flipped the page, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not nearly as powerful as my brother the heir of Excalibur, but I still pack a hell of a lot more of a punch than your average everyday witch."

"So what are your powers?" She asked him while tapping her fingers on the back of the couch.

He looked up at her briefly before flipping another page and humming as he found the page on the Phoenix coven. "Depends on what you look at as individual powers."

She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean 'individual powers'?"

He sighed, finally realizing that he wasn't going to get any reading done while she was sitting next to him. Not that he had been getting much done in the first place knowing that she was in the shower right down the hall. But at least he could make it _look_ like he had been.

He set the book down on the coffee table across from them and turned sideways so that his knee was bent and he was facing Bianca with his arm next to hers on the back of the couch. "Well, for example. One of my powers is telekinesis. But that power has advanced so much that I can use it to achieve the effects of a ton of different powers."

Bianca thought about it for a moment before finally saying, "First, what are your original powers, just the basic ones."

Chris took a deep breath. "Okay, there's orbing, sensing, glamouring, omnilingusim, and cloaking. You know all the typical whitelighter stuff." he began, ticking them off on his fingers as he went. "That is, accept healing. Still can't do that." He blew out a deep breath, "And then I got a few elder things, but nothing offensive. Most of the things I got from my elder side ar pretty useless. Like limited omniscience."

Bianca cut him off, "Limited omniscience?" She asked in confusion.

"It's like I just _know_ things." Chris explained but at the look she gave him he added, "But it's almost always completely useless things, like where the guy in 21b left his keys last week." He said with an eye roll. "By the way, there in a toilet tank in apartment 22a. Don't even ask because I have no idea why." They both laughed as Chris shook his head.

"Did you tell him?" Bianca asked still giggling.

"Hell no," Chris chuckled, "How would I explain that?" He cleared his throat and mocked, "Hey, I don't know your name, but I do know that your keys are in your neighbors can.' Yeah. That would be awkward."

"Okay, so I see your point." Bianca admitted with a laugh before brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Continue."

"I also got hovering. Completely useless," He started, "I can float, but I can't move." He rolled his eyes when Bianca laughed at the look on his face. "Then there's photokinesis and thermokinesis. Hence the reason there's no microwave here." Bianca turned to look into the kitchen, and sure enough, there was no microwave. She had no idea how she had missed that one. "But that powers pretty much only useful for heating up food. I still haven't been able to figure out if that's an extension of telekinesis or an elder power." He added thoughtfully.

Bianca tapped him on the arm lightly and he continued. "That's really it for the elder stuff. Other than that, on the witch side I really only got telekinesis. I mean there's a lot that I can do with it, but that's really the only Wiccan power I have."

"So what all can you do with telekinesis?" Bianca asked him.

Chris laughed. "What _can't_ I do with it?"

She rolled her eyes in response. "That doesn't tell me much."

Chris sighed. "Well, its advanced to Advanced telekinesis, I can use it for telematerilazation, psycokinesis, tecnopathy, that one comes in handy for when I lose the remote quite often actually, and telekinetic orbing, remote orbing, and that kind of stuff."

Bianca just blinked at him stupidly for a moment. "Do you have any other special skills?" she asked him sarcastically.

"Oh, trust me; I've got a lot of special skills." He winked at her. She blushed and shook her head in disbelief. "If you're lucky, I might demonstrate some of them for you." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "But really, MMA and agility, and that's it for me. What about you?" He challenged.

Bianca laughed. "Not nearly as many as you. Just Shimmering, apportation, energy Balls, power Stripping, and agility. With other assorted skills of my own of course." She said with a smirk as she winked at Chris, "But you've got to work a lot harder to find out what those are."


	9. The Plan

Note: So okay, I know that its been almost two weeks, and before you murder me, let me explain. I know, excuses are like ass holes, and all that jazz, but I have a few really good ones. So apparently everyone was born on June 8th so I had to go to two birthday party's (and not the fun kind..) and that killed my entire day, then my sister got the flu and gave it to her son who ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration. He's all back to normal now, being his typical demonic self, and to make things even better (Sarcasm) , he gave _me_ the flu. Luckily, not nearly as bad as he had it, but I was still sick for about a week, and had I to babysit anyway -_-. As for vanquishing the demonic children, I think my sister would probably frown upon that considering that it's my two nephews and nice that I'm babysitting. Although it is an appealing idea sometimes... Now, those were my excuses, and this is my story.

* * *

Chris and Bianca stared at the list of ingredients that they would need for the vanquishing potion. Although they would really need every single one of those times around twenty in order to have enough to vanquish the whole coven.

And that was the problem. Some of these potion ingredients were really rare. Like, you would be lucky to find enough for one potion in a year, rare. "So." Bianca said, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Chris had. "Come up with another plan?"

"No." Chris said as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "I have a guy."

Bianca narrowed her eyes at him, "You have a Kotochul Egg guy?"

"No." Chris rolled his eyes, "I have a rare potion ingredient guy. Also known as my best friend Sam." He dialed a number and then pressed talk. "He's half manticore, a witch hybrid, so he knows his way around the underworld, even though he only goes down there when I either drag him or make him go find something for me because I'm earthier to busy or lazy to go do it myself."

Bianca laughed. "You just have a thing for rescuing half demons don't you."

"No I didn't…" He paused and pushed off of the kitchen counter he was leaning against. "Hey, Sam…"

"Man, I know you want something, so just skip the bull and get to it." Sam said into the phone in a tone that Chris knew meant that he was rolling his eyes. "I just hope you don't almost get me killed again…" He trailed off.

"Hey, one time." Chris protested, "That happened one time and you're going to hold it against me for the rest of my life."

"One time?" Sam exclaimed "You have singlehandedly gotten me into more near death experiences this year alone than Harry potter got into in all seven years at Hogwarts!"

Chris laughed, "Dude. You're such a nerd."

The only response was an annoyed grumbling from the other end of the phone line. "So seriously, what do you want?" He asked after a moment.

"Well," Chris started, "You see, there's this potion that I really need to make…" He trailed off as Sam's protest filled his ear.

"No Chris. No, no, no, no! I will not go snooping around in swamps or caves or lion's dens or the underworld for another stupid potion ingredient just so you can go on another suicide mission!"

"Sam, I know you don't want to, but unless you want me getting killed by a bunch of angry assassin witches…"

"Better you than me." Sam interrupted shortly, an action which Chris chose to ignore.

"Then it would probably be in your best interest to help me out here." The young man finished with a nod of his head, knowing that he had already convinced his friend to do the job. Bianca laughed at him, causing him to look over at her through narrowed eyes then turn back around and look out of the window as he waited for his friend to respond.

"You know what Chris…" Sam sighed, and then paused. "Wait a minute, did you say assassin witches?" He asked in disbelief, "I know your good at irritating people, but how in the hell did you manage to piss off a bunch of assassin witches?"

"Well, to be honest," Chris chuckled, "It's nothing that I've done already, but I'm about to. And I would feel a lot better about it if I had a sack full of vanquishing potion in my hand when it happens."

"I don't suppose there is any possible way that I can talk you out of whatever stupid thing that you're planning?" Sam asked, already knowing full what the answer would be.

Chris turned his head to look at Bianca who was now doodling on a small pad of paper that had been lying on the counter. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and he could see the small smile playing on her lips. "Not a chance. I'm already a lost cause at this point."

"Wait a minute. Is this about a girl?" Sam asked incredulously.

"That as a distinct possibility." Chris said and then added quickly, "So will you do it."

"I would rather my best friend not be assassinated, so yes, I will find you the damn ingredients." Sam said, and then before Chris could say anything in return Sam rushed to add, "But I don't know how long it will take me, because I'm pretty busy and knowing you, you want me to find a Kotochul Egg or something like that."

"Well, yeah…" Chris laughed, "But I actually need about six of them… and I'm also gonna need a dozen cardamom leaves, a comfrey root, two dozen white crow feathers, one pound of hollyshock seeds, a gram of black poppy, and a dozen arrow leaves."

"Oh, you have to be fuc-" Sam started, bus Chris laughed and exclaimed into the phone.

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver man, see ya later!"

Bianca laughed as Chris ended the call and dropped the phone back onto the island with little regard, after all when you could just cast a spell and fix any damages done, why waste time being careful? She dropped the pencil on top of the pad of paper, "Did you really just trick you friend into finding some of the rarest ingredients that aren't extinct yet?"

"Yes I did." He stated with a mischievous smile that just screamed ulterior motives.

"Just out of curiosity," Bianca asked, "why didn't we go do it ourselves?"

"Because," Chris responded, "If we aren't we'll have time for other things." He said suggestively.

"Oh, and what kind of other things are you thinking about?" She asked with narrowed eyes, "Because if we're on the same page here, then you must have gotten a really bad first impression of me."

"You have a really dirty mind, you know that?" He laughed, "Just out of curiosity," He asked in the same tone that she had a few seconds before, "Do you happen to have a swimsuit. Because I know this really nice private little beach. Of course we'd have to orb because it's somewhere in Florida…" He trailed off.

She smiled. Chris really knew just what she wanted. Her idea of the perfect date had always been a long walk on the beach, the sand squishing between their toes and the waves crashing around their ankles while the wind breeze blew her hair. Not that this was a date. Was it a date? Did she want it to be a date?

"Bianca?" Chris said waving his hand in front of her face with raised eyebrows. "Anyone home?"

"Umm, yeah." Bianca shook her head with a laugh, "Sorry. Yeah, I do have a swimsuit."

"Well go put it on, it's past noon already." He smiled at her warmly. A huge contrast from the annoyed or mischievous ones from only moments earlier

She was really starting to think that he was bipolar.

* * *

Note: So I know that there wasn't much to this chapter, but I did introduce Chris's best friend Sam. And before I get more into Sams character, I would like to say that I will not write slash for characters that are not GLBT in cannon. I'm not homophobic or anything like that, and I fully support the GLBT community, however, when it comes to Slash with a character that has always been straight in cannon, its just a personal preference to not read or write it. To each their own right? I really am sorry if I offended anyone, but I just wanted to say that now because I know that at some point in the future when Sam becomes a bigger part of the story someone will ask me about it.

Now, if you haven't gotten mad at me and clicked (or taped) out of my story, I would like to thank you for both coming back to my story after my ridiculously long break and not swearing off my stories along with all of the kind reviews, and feel free to PM me with any suggestions, I would be glad to hear (or read. I know, I'm lame) them. Please leave a review and let me know what you think :-).


	10. The Beach

Note: I am really, really, really, really sorry for how long it took me to update. I wish I had a good excuse, but I really don't, I was just tired and if I force myself to write whenever I don't have to babysit then I wont ever want to and then it will take me even longer to post new chapters. On the bright side, I got a new laptop for my birthday (July 1), and I love it! Now yes, Sam is the half Manticore baby from the show, and the reason that the family didn't get him to tell them where Chris went is because he ran away too (although he is still in contact with his father). About Chris's Elder lightning power/ Elecktrokiness, I haven't exactly decided whether or not I'm going to have him develop that particular power. I know that there is one other power that I'm going to introduce later, but I'm not sure about that one (I feel like if he is given to many powers he becomes a Gary Sue and I already gave him more then he is given in the show, although most of his powers are extensions of telekinesis... so I don't know). Now, please enjoy the chapter!

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The only sound that could be heard was the tranquil crashing of waves against the shore, a slight breeze rustled the palm trees, the sun was high in the sky, and white sand blanketed the beach. The spot was completely undisturbed by mankind. At least it was until a six foot two cluster of glittery blue orbs appeared in the middle of the beach and materialized into two separate humans, one a tall man with dark hair, a toned body, and a look in his eyes that spoke knowledge and pain years greater than the age he appeared. His companion, a considerably shorter woman with lighter brown hair and brown eyes that spoke years of being a soldier fighting for her life but still sparkled brightly nonetheless.

Bianca clung to Chris's arm as a wave of dizziness overcame her. Apparently, orbing and demons didn't mix. Yeah, who would have thought? Chris looked down at her clearly struggling to contain his laughter at the expression on her face.

"Wait a minute." Bianca practically growled, "You knew that would happen didn't you?" She frowned, but continued to hold onto Chris's arm to keep from falling over and landing on her butt in the sand.

Chris smiled at her, a half apologetic half flirtatious smirk that would have made her knees weak had they not already been resembling the stability of jelly thanks to Chris's preferred method of travel. "Well," He started, "I would suppose that given the fact that my best friend is also half demon and I am constantly forcing him into doing things against his will that anyone with a shred of sanity would wholeheartedly protest, yes." His smirk turned into a full blown smile as he looked down at her. "Yes I did. You also won't be able to shimmer for a few hours. I haven't been able to figure out how that one works yet, but I will eventually. And I did figure out that the further you orb, the longer it will take for you to regain the ability to shimmer. It's interesting really."

Chris put a hand on her waist to stead her, and given that she was in a small red bikini, his hand was splayed over her bare skin. "I guess the lack of shimmering capabilities doesn't matter at the moment, but you couldn't have at least warned me about the dizzy thing?" Bianca asked now only slightly annoyed given that the earth had gone from full on tilt-a-whirl to the speed of a carousel.

"If Ihad told you then you would have been expecting it and I wouldn't have a gorgeous woman clinging to me at the moment, now would I?" He asked tilting his head to the side as he looked her over for the thousandth time since she walked out of her room in that tiny red swimsuit. "Plus driving from Massachusetts to one of the south most points of Florida wasn't really in our time range and I didn't want you to say no to orbing."

Bianca opened her eyes and shot him a quick glare before she looked around the beach for the first time since they had arrived. It was beautiful, all sparkling blue water, fine white sand, and tall palm trees. It really did look like one of the backgrounds that came preloaded on computers and cell phones. It took her breath away and she could no longer make herself be angry with Chris, because this was perfect. Completely perfect and she couldn't deny that. However… "How did you find this place?" Bianca asked quietly, as though afraid to disturb the tranquility of the small private beach that was isolated from human civilization on all sides by thick vegetation and water.

"I was looking for a place to relax, you know get away from my family. Just orbing all over the place. I didn't exactly have a location in mind. I just ended up here. It actually took me quite a while to figure out where it was so that I could come back whenever I could get away from them." Chris said like it was totally normal to have to run away from your family often enough that you found a place that decades of development couldn't as he slowly let go of her; although they were both more than a little disappointed at the loss of contact. She looked up at him sadly, the fact that he had _needed_ to get away from his house that bad in the first place was wrong on a thousand different levels. "What?" Chris asked, the smile falling from his face.

Bianca opened her mouth to respond. She wanted to tell him that she didn't know how _anyone_ with a heart could hurt him like that on purpose. How they could tear him down piece by piece, destroy his self-esteem and not feel even the slightest bit of remorse. She wanted to ask him how he had turned out to be such an amazing person, the kind of guy that would drop whatever he was doing (Quite latterly in her case) to help a complete stranger in need and not ask anything in return. How even though he was half elder and the son of a charmed one he didn't think of himself as better than anyone else. How she had known him for barely twenty four hours and she already knew she was falling in love with him.

However she knew she couldn't say any of that to him; so she simply responded with, "Never mind." and shot him a smile the he returned, however it was clearly less genuine than the one from before. "So, how's the water?" She asked as she took a step backward toward the ocean.

"I'm not sure, but you're about to find out." His eyes twinkled with mischief and he moved to fast for her eyes to follow as he ran forward and grabbed her around the waist. She let out a shriek surprise as he ran into the water and then when he was thigh deep, he threw her in a few more feet laughing the whole time.

She went under with a huge splash and then resurfaced a few seconds later shaking her head and wiping out her eyes. "You're such a jerk." She mumbled while spitting salt water out of her mouth.

"Oh, you love it." He joked, she rolled her eyes in response and turned to face him, planting her feet in the sand at the bottom of the water. She was up to her boobs in salt water and it was only barely covering the top of Chris's swim trunks.

"Whatever. Just watch your back." She shot him a grin. "Revenge is definitely one of my favorite activities." Chris just kept on smiling as he responded.

"Look at that. Another thing we have in common." He took a step closer to her and said quietly, "And I don't play for fair… I play to win."

Bianca continued to look up at him through her lashes, he was now standing less than a foot away from her and she could feel the heat from his body. She bit her lip nervously, an action that Chris's gaze followed closely. Even though the waves were rising and falling around them they didn't pay it any attention. Their eyes were locked on each other's mouths.

They both knew that something about their 'Relationship' was strange. They had only known one another a little over twenty four hours but it felt like they had known each other for years. They had a connection that neither of them had ever experienced before, and even though Chris would probably never admit it to anyone, he already trusted her in a way that he had only ever even begun to trust Sam after a whole lifetime of building their friendship.

They both knew that it would be best to take it slow. To just be friends for a while, get to know one another, and then _maybe_ act on their real feelings. But neither of them wanted to wait, and if they were being honest with themselves, neither of them had ever done things the conventional way.

Chris's eyes drifted from her lips up to meet her gaze. He placed his scarred hand on her cheek and lowered his head. Her hand was placed on his shoulder, her fingers splayed and she could feel his warm breath on her face as their eyes drifted closed and even though they had just met, and she was soaked, and breast deep in salt water, she couldn't think of a better moment.

Being this close to him was clouding her senses. All she could feel, think, and smell was him. In fact, it was something that made him even hotter. She couldn't exactly come up with the words to describe his smell, but she added it to her mental 'to do list'. All she knew was that it was intoxicating, even though it was partially masked by the strong smell of salt water.

His lips just barely ghosted over hers for a moment, leaving her wondering if she had really felt them at all. But half a second later his lips returned to hers with a little more pressure. She stood up on her toes to try and make the angle more comfortable for Chris and one of his hands tangled in her dripping hair while his other arm snaked around her waist to pull her against him.

Bianca's arms went around Chris's neck and she wasn't quite sure whether she was trying to pull him down closer to her height or pull herself up to his; but she did know that she wanted them to be closer. But despite the fact that he was almost an entire foot taller than her, they fit together perfectly and her being in his arms felt right. No, it felt perfect.

And then a huge wave came crashing over them, braking over their heads and knocking the both of them off balance. They managed to keep their holds on each other, although they broke apart laughing. Apparently Mother Nature was not fond of people making out in the ocean.

However their gazes locked and the laughing died off. Neither one of them had any idea what to say to the other. Bianca realizing that she was going to have to be the one to break the silence whispered a soft and breathless, "Wow."

"Careful, you might inflate my ego and then I won't be able to fit into the apartment." Chris quietly joked, although it was clear that his heart wasn't in it. He was distracted by the millions of thoughts racing through his head and Bianca felt much the same way.

Bianca laughed softly, she knew that they would have to have a _real _discussion about what had just happened later, however she also knew that it wasn't the time. With the Phoenix after her and Sam out looking for rare potion ingredients, and they still had to work out some kinks in the plan not to mention the fact that looking up at the sky, she realized that a few hours must have passed while they were… preoccupied.

"I think we should probably get back now." Chris said softly studying her face like he was waiting for her to up and run. "We've still got to finish up the plan and…" He paused for a moment and then concluded, "Stuff."

Bianca nodded mutely slowly releasing her hold on his neck, although Chris kept his arm around her waist as they got out of the water and they maintained some kind of contact all the while that they were drying off. Bianca didn't mind one bit. His warmth was soothing and relaxed her as she stepped into her strapless red sundress.

He took her hand and prepared to orb, Bianca squeezed her eyes shut and leaned against his chest, waiting for the unnatural feeling of turning into angelic orbs and the dizziness that accompanied it. But it didn't come, after a moment, she opened her eyes to see Chris staring off into space with furrowed eyebrows and a half startled half worried look on his face.

"Chris?" Bianca questioned with concern clear in her voice, "Chris, what is it?"

He looked down at her, his brows still furrowed. "There's someone in the apartment. A Whitelighter."

* * *

Note: So they kissed! It actually took me quite awhile to figure out how I wanted to do that scene and I've never written anything like that before, so please let me know what you thought about it, and the rest of the chapter. And I'm not gonna lie, reviews encourage me to update faster.


	11. Missing You

Note: Well, I had this chapter done Friday night but I was at my family's farm in southern Missouri for the holiday weekend, so I didn't have any internet until about ten minutes ago. On another note, I should have another chapter up for this story and my Next Generation Fic by Tuesday night. Please enjoy :-)

* * *

Piper Halliwell sat at the small table in the attic, the book of shadows opened to a summoning spell that she had tried casting a thousand times before and had long ago memorized. Red, white, and purple candles sat cluttered around a cauldron full of herbs, spices, and blood from the countless 'blood to blood' spells she had cast.

"Blood to blood I summon thee," She said with a tear choked voice as she ran the dagger lightly over the palm of her hand, "Blood to blood return to me." She curled her fingers and squeezed, a trail of blood slowly ran down the back of her hand and dripped into the cauldron, adding to the growing pile of ingredients.

The second that the drop of blood hit the pile, a weak gust of wind blew through the attic, just enough to allow the middle aged woman's hopes to rise. But it was for naught as the curtains blew softly and the flames on the candles flickered momentarily before returning to their previous blaze.

Piper's shoulders sagged and she cradled her bleeding hand against her body as a sob ripped itself from her chest.

"Mom?" A small hesitant voice asked from the doorway.

"Chris?" She perked up, looking over to the doorway, only for her shoulders to slump once again. It wasn't Chris.

"No, it's one of your other sons." Wyatt said quietly, "You know, the ones that you've seemed to have forgotten existed." He trailed of, not bitterly though, it was said softly. The young man couldn't bring himself to be angry with his mother, because although she had been spiraling into her own gilt and sadness, he and the rest of the family had not been handling the situation much better.

For the past six months he had spent a majority of his time in the underworld vanquishing every demon that so much as crossed his path. In the back of his mind, he knew that he was leaving his youngest brother to deal with everything himself but he couldn't bring himself to stop. He missed his little brother.

He and Chris had always been close, at least they had until Chris was about fifteen. The two of them had been the closest siblings in the family, all but attached at the hip, though they may as well have been. It had always been them against the world. Against demons and elders and warlocks. They had done everything together.

However, shortly after Chris's fifteenth birthday he had closed himself off completely. He wouldn't talk to anyone but Sam, he hardly ever ate anything, he was gone for school before anyone woke up in the morning and then proceeded to lock himself in his room the moment he arrived back at home and didn't leave again until the next morning. Wyatt still wasn't quite sure when he had eaten. Or if he had eaten at all for that matter.

Wyatt knew that if he had been a better brother, he would have noticed that something was wrong. But… but he couldn't really explain it. It was like there was some part of him that had been screaming out the whole time that there was something wrong, but… but it was like that part of him was hitting a solid wall, or maybe trapped in a box.

It was really only when he had realized that Chris could be gone that the part of him that was trapped had managed to get through the wall: and it had come out with a vengeance. The same thing had happened with the rest of the family, and when they had realized that they had been neglecting Chris all these years… It had been horrible, the cousins knew that they had let down one of their own, all nine of them had been a close as could be up until Wyatt himself had hit double digits, and Piper, Phoebe, and Paige felt as though they had failed Chris all over again, which Wyatt supposed they had. They all had.

But Leo had taken it the worst of everyone in the family. He couldn't explain the things that he had done to Chris or the reasons and motivation behind them and there was a simple reason why: there was Wyatt could not even remember what had gone through his mind when he had beaten his son. His own flesh and blood, however he could remember in perfect detail every strike, be it with his fist or his voice.

Leo had lost it when the box around his paternal instincts had disappeared. When he realized what he had done he disappeared. The elders couldn't find them, the sisters and the cousins where having the same luck. He was just gone. But to be fair, they hadn't really looked very hard.

"I'm sorry." Piper said quietly, sniffing and casting her red and puffy eyes downward toward the dark wooden floor. "I just…" She paused and sniffed again. "I just need to fix this, I need to tell him that something was wrong, I need to tell him that I love him and that I'm so sorry, but I can't do that if I can't find him."

Wyatt looked over her shoulder and out the window, focusing his gaze on a tree in a front yard across the street. That house belonged to Derek, Sam's father. Wyatt knew that the older man knew something about where the two missing boys were, but he wasn't breaking and that annoyed the young blonde man more than he cared to admit.

"Mom." He sighed as he moved further into the room. "Come on, go to bed. You're tired and I don't think you've actually eaten anything in three days."

Piper narrowed her eyes at him stubbornly. "Who is the adult here?" She asked him and it took every ounce of self-control that Wyatt could muster to keep him from snapping something along the lines of, 'I don't know, but it's not you.' However he simply pulled a chair over to sit next to her. "What are you doing?" She asked him suspiciously.

"Chris has really powerful warding and blocking abilities." He said, when she just looked at him questioningly he added, "The two of us have more of a chance of finding him together than separate." Piper nodded slowly and looked down at the book as she and Wyatt began to recite another spell.

They tried for a few more hours before eventually giving up and going to bed. They were at a loss. It was obvious that Chris wasn't going to be found if he didn't want to, and that was the problem, he didn't want to be.

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Note: So there you go, I gave you a chapter on how the family is doing. I know it's not my best work, but I was pretty busy this weekend. So please let me know what you think and I will try to post again by Tuesday night :-)


	12. The Whitelighter

Note: See, I told you I'd have another chapter up by Tuesday night! However, I did quit my job as a babysitter so that leaves me with a lot more time to write. Thank you for all the reviews and please enjoy the chapter. :-)

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It was only moments after Chris's startling discovery that the young man sensed into the stairwell a few doors down from his apartment for any lingering mortals and upon realizing that there were none and knowing that there were no cameras, he orbed himself and Bianca onto the very landing on which they had met.

Bianca couldn't help it when she laid her head against Chris's chest and squeezed her eyes shut as the feeling of trying to walk a straight line after ten rounds in a tilt a whirl overcame her once again. She knew that they needed to get to his apartment and see who had taken it upon themselves to enter while they were gone, but she wouldn't be of very much use to anyone when she couldn't even stand up on her own. Apparently Chris had come to the same conclusion granted that he hadn't moved but had simply placed his arm around her waist to ensure that she wouldn't fall over.

"Please tell me that this will eventually stop happening whenever you orb me anywhere." She moaned into his chest, he laughed despite the situation.

"I don't know, I guess you could ask Sam, I think you'll eventually get used to it." He paused for a moment as though thinking about it, and then added, "But I really hope not…"

She hit his chest with a small laugh, at which he grinned, "You're such a jerk." She chastised him, her lips curving up into a smile against her will.

"I know." He said proudly, at which Bianca giggled. The young woman inwardly chastised herself, what was she, a freaking ten year old blushing school girl? Bianca Nichole Marshall did _not _giggle, and she most certainly did not _blush_. "So, you better seeing straight?" Chris asked her, "Because I would kind of like to know who is hanging out in my house."

Bianca nodded and stood up straight, although she still looked like a leprechaun compared to how tall her companion was. She shivered at the loss of Chris's warmth, she had almost forgotten that they were still in there swimsuits. For some reason the idea of facing whoever was in the apartment in a bikini wasn't very appealing, not that they had much of a choice granted that all of their clothes were in Chris's apartment.

However the way she knew Chris's eyes were roaming over her body whenever he thought that she wasn't looking was a pretty big ego boost.

They climbed the stairs, and exited the stairwell about four doors down from Chris's apartment. They walked at an inconspicuous pace, not wanting to attract the attention of anyone who may be watching. Though suddenly a thought struck Bianca and she grabbed onto his bicep and pulled hard enough to make him turn sideways and face her.

"What?" Chris asked, more than a little annoyed. He hated being grabbed. It brought things that he had worked really hard to suppress back to the front of his mind. He knew full well that if it had been anyone other than Bianca to grab him, the situation would have ended in whoever had been stupid enough to touch him getting their ass handed to them in the form of years of martial arts training finely tuned by even more years of demon fighting.

However it was Bianca who had made the mistake of grabbing him, so he reined in his survival instincts and gritted his teeth against the memories that assaulted his mind. The young Phoenix seemed to realize what she had done and dropped her hand. Bianca inwardly cursed herself it had been an innocent enough gesture, she hadn't thought anything of it, and she sure as hell didn't realize that it could bring back bad memories. She should have but she didn't.

She did however realize that it would probably be in both of their best interest to distract him.

"Chris, what if it's your brother, or your aunt, or your dad, or one of your cousins?" She asked him quickly. The whole exchange had only lasted around ten seconds, but it felt like a lot longer.

Chris shook his head, his demeanor changing to one of the playful and flirtatious young man that she had spent the past two days with, however, his muscles were tensed, his face was a little pale, and his eyes were haunted. It was sort of like he was seeing something that wasn't really there and trying his hardest to ignore it.

"No." He replied, voice slightly quieter than normal, "I would know if it was one of them. It's not an elder and whoever is here is most definitely a full Whitelighter. Mutts like myself have a really distinct mark on the Whitelighter…" Chris paused thoughtfully for a moment, "Radar, I guess that would be the best way to describe it. All types of magical beings leave a different mark, but the Witchlighter is definitely the most distinct, pop out in your face type of them all."

Bianca paused for a moment, to digest the information and then nodded. "Okay." She said, "But have you ever thought that maybe Witchlighters are the most distinct is because they're all Halliwells and ridiculously powerful?"

Chris shrugged and gave her a pointed look, finally having pulled free from whatever trance like state he had been pulled into though his muscles were still tensed as though ready to defend himself at a moment's notice. "Can we contemplate the mysteries of the universe when we aren't standing in the middle of a hallway in soaking went swimsuit and there isn't an angel doing god knows what in my apartment?"

_Yep_ Bianca thought, he was definitely back to his normal sarcastic self. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, then with a sigh she started walking again, although with his long legs he still reached the door a few seconds before her.

He didn't bother to take a key out of the pocket of his swim trunks, come to think of it, Bianca wondered if he even had a key, he clearly didn't need one as he looked down the hallway in both directions, and then after confirming that there was no one, he held his hand over the lock and narrowed his eyes, it only took less than a second for a soft click to sound from the deadbolt.

Chris pushed the door open and Bianca followed him into the family room. The two of them quickly looked around the room trying to find anything at least a little bit out of place, but there was nothing. At least nothing that Bianca could see.

Chris however, had focused his gaze on something in the entertainment center. He walked over to the cabinet with furrowed brows and picked up the picture of his family. The frame had been flipped over so that the picture was facing the shelf.

"What the hell?" He asked quietly looking at Bianca who simply shrugged in response.

Chris righted the frame and looked over his shoulder into the kitchen and gasped in surprise. Bianca frowned and followed his gaze, her eyes widened, not quite sure how they had missed the face that there was a woman sitting on the counter with the book of shadows in her lap, flipping through its pages with a wistful smile on her face.

Bianca looked the woman over, she was tall with midnight black hair that went down to her mid back, and deep green eyes so much like Chris's. It didn't take Bianca long to figure out who this could be.

Her thoughts were confirmed when Chris smiled and happily exclaimed, "Aunt Prue!"

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Note: Yay, Prue! She always was one of my favorite characters (Right after Chris, Piper, and Bianca.) I was so mad when they never brought her back even for like one episode, I mean I know that there was the whole thing between Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano but I mean seriously, they couldn't have gotten over it for like half an episode? So, Prue will be in this fic. Please let me know what you think in the form of reviews and or PM's because they make me all happy and stuff :-).


	13. Aunt Prue

**Note: Okay, hold the tomato throwing, I come in peace! I am so very sorry that it took me so insanely long to update, and to be honest, I have absolutely no excuse other than the fact that I got lazy. I would force myself to write but then it becomes a chore and I wont want to do it anymore. But anyway... School starts back up tomorrow so that's... Really crappy... and I just got home from vacation in Destin Florida Sunday night and let me tell you, it is beautiful! The sand is white and fluffy and the water is so clear that it literally looks like a swimming pool. **

**But now enough about my vacation and onto some stuff about my story... First, highlander348 asked why Chris didn't just check for a spell when his family started mistreating him, and that's a good point, if his family had just out of the blue started abusing him then he probably would have, however, he had always been treated that way and he didn't know anything different. Obviously ****_now _****he knows that the way he was treated wasn't normal, but by the time he figured out that there could be more to the story than them just being abusive, the damage had already been done and he knew he was going to leave. Beside that he knew that even if it was just a spell, there was no way that they could all just be one big happy family again.**

**I will be addressing this further in the story later on and I can assure you that there is a reason that he didn't just go check for spells. **

**Also, thank you for all the reviews, I appreciate every one of them, and I promise that from now on I will try my hardest to update at least every two weeks. I will also be attempting to respond to my reviews (Given that you are logged in and there is something to respond to). Although, I will say right now that I'm not very good at responding to PM's, or reviews directly... I don't know why, I'm just... not.**

**I will also be editing, redoing, and reposting some of the earlier chapters because some of the grammatical errors make me cringe. I recommend that you reread the ones I end up redoing because I will probably change a few important things (Powers, past relationships, a few things about Chris's past, Etc.). Plus I will probably be changing the name of the story soon, so any title suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I have no idea what to name this story and I know it needs to be changed. Of course if someone gives me one that I like and end up using, I will give them credit.**

**And oh my god. Thank you all so much for the Reviews and followers and favorites. I'm almost at eighteen thousand views and that is just... Wow. I remember when I uploaded the first chapter I was positive that this story would get lost in the archives and maybe if I was lucky I would get a few reviews, but 117! not to mention 113 follows and 63 favorites... just wow. Thank you guys so much. **

**If you actually read all of this ridiculously long authors note which is almost as long as the chapter itself, I thank you and you are awesome. Now, please enjoy the chapter and let me know what you thought!**

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Prue smiled as she closed the book of shadows and slid it off of her lap and onto the counter. She jumped down and crossed her arms. "Why, hello wonderful nephew of mine!" She chirped.

Chris laughed and rolled his eyes at his favorite aunt. That was the greeting she had given him every time he had ever summoned her. It had started when he was about six years old. She had been trying to get him to summon her by flipping the book of shadows to the 'to summon a spirit' spell every time he walked into the attic. Eventually he had finally gotten irritated enough after two months to find out why the book would randomly turn to that page on its own whenever he tried to read it.

His aunt Prue appeared inside the circle of candles as one very annoyed ghost. Of course that had been a combination of the fact that it had taken him an entire year to summon her and that she was beyond angry at her sisters and brother in laws. As soon as she materialized with her hands on her hips, she had quipped, "Hello, wonderful nephew of mine!" and the greeting became routine, it had also quickly become a surefire way to make him smile. This time was no different.

"Hey aunt Prue…" He paused for a moment, tilted his head and looked at her. "You're not a ghost." He stated after a moment.

"Nope." She responded happily. "I'm a Whitelighter." The woman paused for effect. "Your Whitelighter to be exact."

Chris's eyes widened as his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it. He had lived through hell for seventeen years and the elders had refused to give him a Whitelighter, now that he was finally getting his life back on track, the narcissistic, white robed, blessed be my ass, jerk wads had finally deemed him worthy of a little help?

Oh. Hell. No. There was most definitely something else at play here.

"Listen Chris, I know what you're thinking." Prue took a deep breath, "Trust me, I felt the same way at first, but a lot has changed in the past few days that no one expected. Not even the Elders."

"So now you defending the self-important jackasses?" Chris asked. His voice was quiet. Steady. Angry. "Never thought I'd see the day."

Pure actually looked offended for a moment. "No, of course not!" She protested, "You know how much I hate the arrogant…" She cut herself off, taking a deep breath before calmly stating, "Personally I believe that a pack of wild untrained monkeys could run the magical world more effectively than those pacifist." Bianca had to fight back a laugh at that. She couldn't agree more.

"That's my line." Chris muttered, still debating in his head weather he should believe that the Elders would do anything remotely this nice for him. Knowing them this was just temporary. A way for them to get his aunt Prue to agree to become a Whitelighter.

That or they were about to get him seriously injured and they wanted to make sure that he could be healed so he didn't die. That definitely seemed more like them.

"You know what?" Chris asked, "We can deal with this latter. I think that the bigger question is how the elders found me."

Prue smiled. "They didn't. Your wards are so good that the lot of them all together couldn't find you. I'm so proud sweetie."

"So how did you find him?" Bianca asked, puzzled, not giving Chris a chance to protest at being referred to as 'Sweetie'. "If all the elders together couldn't, then how did you?"

"He's summoned me here a few times, so I already knew, that's part of the reason why they made me a Whitelighter rather than just assigning him a different one." Prue paused, a thoughtful look on her face. "Well, that and the fact that they knew if they did somehow manage to find him, he would never really trust a stranger."

Bianca raised her eyebrows. She was majoring in Psychology after all. Of course she had known that kids who had been abused had trouble trusting people, even after it was over the psychological scars that were left behind never completely disappeared; and there was no doubt about it that Chris had been abused, there was no other word to describe what had been done to him throughout his childhood. But for some reason, he had instantly trusted her. At least he appeared to anyway.

Chris looked at her out of the corner of his eye and was momentarily surprised by the look that she was giving him. The moment their eyes locked, he was pulled back into the memory of what had happened between them on that beach just moments ago; although it felt like hours. He shook his head and his gaze flicked back to his aunt who was looking back and forth between them with an undecipherable expression on her face.

After a second of silence, Bianca said quietly, "Then why does he trust me? I mean I'm half demon, which I assume you already knew. If he wouldn't trust a _guardian angel_ then why would he trust a _trained assassin_?"

Prue nervously bit her lip. She knew the answer to the young woman's question. She knew what the elders told her to do. She knew what she wanted to do. But she also knew what she _should _do. She pushed an exasperated breath between her lips. Damn her genetic inclination to do the right thing.

Looking between the two teenagers, at the way they stood, like they were ready and braced for an attack at any moment, and the look in their eyes, like they had both been to hell and back more times than they could count, she knew that it really didn't matter what move she made next. Destiny is destiny and regardless of how much she tried to intervene, what was meant to happen would happen.

It already was. They just didn't see it yet.

With a defeated sigh, she gave them a sad smile. She knew that whatever they had been doing, whatever small would they had managed to build around themselves in the past few days, months in Chris's case, to cope with the crap hands that they had been dealt in life, was about to come crashing down on top them. She also knew that if anyone could get back up and put it back together again, it was her nephew. Especially if he had his soul mate standing beside him.

"Why don't we go into the living room and sit down." The eldest Halliwell sister said sadly, "There's a lot that I need to tell you."


End file.
